Fun, Sun and French Ennui in Summer of 85

François Ozon’s Summer of 85 opens on a Sunset Boulevard riff before segueing into a teen movie riff: The Cure’s “In Between Days” plays over the foreground, a crane shot swoops and rises over a sun-splashed beach abutting a seaside town, and the protagonist, Alexis (Félix Lefebvre), bikes into frame, alive, vibrant and very much not in the custody of a solemn gendarme. The stark contrast struck between these moments in Ozon’s introduction almost feels like a constitutionally French punchline, sardonic in execution but not without warmth and sympathy for Alexis and what’s to come for him. Young love is beautiful. Young love is painful. Young love is a first step toward dancing on a grave in the middle of the night. So it goes.
Alexis is on the lookout for fun and enjoyment as summer wraps the Normandy coast in its balmy embrace. He’s 16. Might as well have a good time. “Capsize the boat” probably isn’t on his list of “good time” activities, but capsize his boat he does as weather rolls in. Things look bleak. Then, a knight in shining armor arrives to his aid, though in fairness his armor is an unbuttoned shirt and swim trunks: David (Benjamin Voisin), young like Alexis but not quite as young, and inarguably a better sailor. Alexis is rescued. He’s also intrigued, as David is with him. They pal around a bit, trade thoughts on life as one expects French youths to—meaning lots of juvenile philosophizing—and then they fall in love. Or at least Alexis does.
Summer ‘21 is a budding season of takes on Call Me by Your Name, beginning with Pixar’s Luca and continuing on with Summer of 85. The latter, of course, much more closely relates with Luca Guadagnino’s film than the former, being a film about romantic rather than platonic love between its leads. Unlike Call Me by Your Name, a picture that’s far too gentle for its own good, Summer of 85 runs on undercurrents of peril that Ozon never permits to go unnoticed. David’s age isn’t vastly greater than Alexis’, just enough to be worth mentioning. It’s his approach to life and especially love that’s forbidding, a “me first” world view in conflict with just how easily, how freely, he’s capable of expressing love.